This is really a book for dipping into rather than reading but I did enjoy my journey through it. The miscellany included often provoked a laugh such as the entry listing some of Anatole's meals (Anatole is the chef of Bertie Wooster's Aunt Dahlia, in case you are not a Wodehouse aficionado). If you have any taste for trivia, this is worth browsing! ( )

Who could have guessed that when I received "Schott's Original Miscellany" as a xmas gift more than a decade ago, that "Schott's would becom a media behemoth, spawning sequels, almanacs and many an imitator? Well, not me, for one.

"Schott's ..." is a wonderful little pot pourri of factoids and trivia that will thrill many a fact tragic with its entries like "UK Christmas No. 1 hits" sharing a page with temperature conversion, knitting abbreviations and a discussion of the word "Abracadabra", to pick one page at random.

"Schott's Miscellany" makes few claims to be exhaustive or even practical. It does, however, claim to be essential. It will afford you great wisdom in the morning, several conversational bons mots for the afternoon, and many an enlightened smile after dark. Where else can you find, packed on to one page, the thirteen principles of witchcraft, the structure of military hierarchy, all of the clothing care symbols, a list of the countries where you drive on the left, and a nursery rhyme about sneezing? Where else, but "Schott's Miscellany", will you stumble across John Lennon's cat, the supplier of bagpipes to the Queen, and the brutal methods of murder encountered by Miss Marple? An encyclopaedia? A dictionary? An almanac? An anthology? A treasury? An amphigouri? A commonplace? A vade-mecum? Well - yes. "Schott's Original Miscellany" is all these, and, of course, more. A book like no other, "Schott's Original Miscellany" is entertaining, informative, unpredictable and utterly addictive.

A collection of lesser-known but everyday trivia includes the structure of the military hierarchy, clothing-care symbols, a list of countries where cars are driven in the left lane, and the name of John Lennon's cat.